What is recorded here

Green glassy slag still lies deep beneath the soil at The Cinders, marking the furious heat of Thomas Ridgeway’s iron works. The Owenbeg River fed the mills while lusty men strained at the furnaces, turning local ore into usable metal for the growing town. Ridgeway’s death in 1641 froze that busy world in law, but the cinders kept the shape of its labour.

An Iron-Mill within the townland was established in the seventeenth century (O'Hanlon and O'Leary 1907, vol. 2, 519). On his death in 1641 Ridgeway, then Earl of Londonderry, was described as holding the manor of Gallenridgeway alias Balinekill, containing a large mansion or castle, one hundred messuages, a dovecot, two watermills, a fulling mill, an iron-mill, courts leet and baron, three fairs and two markets in the town (Ir Rec Comm 1826, com. Regine : 16 Car I). In 1642 the town of Ballinakill along with its Iron Mills was described as 'seated among woods in a place soe watered with springs as afforded the Earle convenience to make many fish ponds neare the Castle hee built there; which hee liekwise fortified with a strong wall, and that with turrets and flankers; besides that the towne since it had been planted was well inhabited, the iron mill there kept many lustie men at work' (Feehan 1983, 377). Situated beside the Owenbeg River valley in an upland area there is a small field known locally as 'The Cinders' (pers. comm. C O'Shea). This field now house a water pumping house for Laois Co. Council. Just beneath the sod there are the remains of a green glassy slag which is the waste material from the Iron works established by Thomas Ridgeway in the early seventeenth century. The remains of the waste material is very deep and may cover the remains of furnaces associated with this Iron Works. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 December 2007

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